Head Downeast,
for the Feast —
in Maine, USA

step
out of the car and the smell is overwhelming — smoking wood
combined with seaweed and saltwater — an indelible sensory
experience evocative of an N.C. Wyeth or George Bellows painting
of coastal Maine

When
sailing ships plied the route from Boston to Maine (geographically east
of Boston), the wind was usually at their backs, which meant they were
essentially sailing downwind. Thus the term “Down East”
came into being. In Maine, it refers to the upper coastal region, from
Penobscot Bay through Castine, Deer Isle, Mt. Desert Island, Acadia
National Park, Bar Harbor, Schoodic Point and up to Lubec.

The cuisine here is quintessential New England, especially in a few
establishments clustered around Mt. Desert Island. Lobster and chowder
houses here are ubiquitous. Cape Cod writer Joseph C. Lincoln (1870-1944),
succinctly described the phenomenon of New England clam chowder —
“as patriotic as the national Anthem… Yankee Doodle in a
kettle.” He might well have had Kathy’s Breakfast and Chowder
House in mind, a simple establishment on Rte. 3, Bar Harbor Road, Trenton,
ME.

The
first thing that struck me upon driving up to the modest white building
was the patriotic décor. A string of American flag lights arch
above the entrance, complemented below by fresh white window planters
brimming with red geraniums and dazzling blue Lobelia. Not surprising.
Kathy Hamor, owner/chef, opened her restaurant on July 4th, 2001. Inside,
the theme continues, window valences repeating tiny flag motifs and
patriotic phrases such as “God Bless America” and “Land
of the Free.” She began serving twenty; since, she’s added
a screened patio to double its size. She must be doing something right;
the chairs don’t have time to cool down, especially for breakfast.

“We are small, but our dream is big: to do our best to serve
people fresh home cooking,” states Kathy on her web site. And
she honours that promise. Like Kathy, the cuisine is direct and authentic
Down East. She runs the tiny kitchen, aided by her husband Li’l
Daddy, whipping every order up from scratch. Her breakfasts are incredible:
hash, eggs
benedict, grits,
exquisite bacon, sausage gravy and biscuits and an assortment of breads
or toast, rye, white, and whole wheat “bulkies” (round light
rolls), all as fresh and moist. The word "chowder"
is derived from the French word "chaudière,” meaning
"kettle." True to tradition, Kathy’s chowder, created
in a huge black kettle, is smooth and milky white, with chunks of pared
diced potatoes floating in the broth, adjacent to either tender clams
or pieces of haddock. Mild sautéed onions can also be discerned
as well. Kathy will not disclose her ingredients; years ago, she made
that mistake only to find a rival chowder house immediately altering
their recipe to conform to hers. Nevertheless, Kathy’s chowder
house prevails and customers continue to return.

Dinner on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings provides still more
regional dishes — the traditional corn and lobster dinner, (“cawn
and lobstah dinnah,” as articulated by Kathy), a gently steamed
haddock accompanied by a light egg sauce, corned hake — a delicate
white-fleshed fish simmered in a brine solution much as one would prepare
corned beef, then served alongside fluffy mashed turnips, boiled potatoes,
diced pork rinds and chopped raw white onions. Although monochromatic
in appearance, the dish is quite tasty. Her rhubarb, blueberry and raspberry
pies are exceptional, hot out of the oven, as are her breakfast blueberry
muffins, often shipped to California.

Herman Melville, the great American novelist, wrote of the Try Pots,
a chowder house in Nantucket, Mass.: “Fishiest of all fishy places
was the Try Pots … for the pots there were always boiling chowders.
Chowder for breakfast, and chowder for dinner, and chowder for supper,
till you began to look for fish-bones coming through your clothes.”
Switch chowder to lobster and you may well be describing The Trenton
Bridge Lobster Pound.

The
lobster pound is synonymous with the Maine coast. There are at least
three within one mile of Kathy’s. The Trenton Bridge Lobster Pound,
a family business for fifty-two years and four generations is one such
place, a waterfront retail and wholesale operation as well as a roadside
restaurant and take-out facility. It is located on the right side of
Rte. 3, just before the small bridge that provides the only access to
Mount Desert Island and Acadia National Park. A sign on the roof announces
"LOBSTERS.” Below the sign a row of wood-fired cookers can
be seen smoking away, stoked from stacks of birch logs nearby. Park,
step out of the car and the smell is overwhelming — smoking wood
combined with seaweed and saltwater — an indelible sensory experience,
evocative of an N.C. Wyeth or George Bellows painting of coastal Maine.

This lobster pound’s evolution is as quintessentially American
its cuisine. Since 1956, George and Gertrude Gascon, John and Dorothy
Dunbar, and now the Gascon’s daughter Josette and her husband
Anthony Pettegrow have nurtured a growing business which includes live
lobster mail-order shipments, steamer clams, mussels, lobster meat and
crabmeat, on-line sales, a refrigerated salt-water tank room and a tidal
holding pound.

Inside the simple white and red shack, the energy is palpable. The
drill is straightforward, sometimes called “lobster-in-the-rough.”
A staff member will ask if you want a lobster, and how large. You’re
then given a number, the live lobster is plucked from a tank before
your eyes, weighed and placed in a small woven purse-string net bag
with a wooden numbered tag attached to it. If the bag were in the New
York Folk Art Museum, visitors would marvel at the macramé design,
its aesthetic combination of form and function, its simplicity. Cooking
time is scratched on a blackboard and the bag is carried outside to
one of the steaming pots where the lobster is cooked to perfection in
fresh, clean, seawater, replenished from large red barrels. Josette
will ask what sides you want (every item, including the sides, is a
la carte, down to the lemons and the butter,) you pay for it and wait.
Eventually, your number is called (often by a delightful Russian exchange
student working there during the summer), you pick up the red plastic
tray heaped with steaming succulence, find a wooden table indoors or
out (sometimes shared with others), get a handful of paper towels and
dig in with metal picking and cracking utensils.

All pounds advertise fresh lobster. The very best ones give you the
sensation of the entire ocean engulfing all your senses from the very
first morsel ingested. Such is the case at Trenton Bridge. I don’t
believe I’ve ever had as tasty a lobster as the ones served here,
easy to crack, easy to eat, rich in taste and tender in texture.

Additional seasonal items are steamed clams (fat, hot, and delicate,
a great appetizer while awaiting the arrival of the steaming red monsters),
clam chowder, an incredibly rich lobster stew (small pieces of lobster
sauteed in butter and gently simmered in a milk base), lobster and crabmeat
cocktails, lobster and crabmeat sandwiches, potato salad, corn on the
cob and cole slaw. Fried or grilled foods simply don’t exist.
Tasty blueberry cake and pie is available for dessert along with assorted
ice cream bars. Beverages include sodas, lemonade, coffee, hot and iced
tea. Bring your own wine. At 7:30 pm sharp they cease taking food orders
(except for pre-cooked takeout such as cold lobsters and sides). I have
witnessed irate would-be diners who, having driven for hours, arrived
at the register at 7:32 only to find themselves out of luck. But only
2 minutes? A-yep.

Other local lobster pounds

Down East Lobster Pound and Lunt’s Lobster Pound are similar
to the Trenton Bridge Lobster Pound (lobster in the rough), all within
1 minute of one another on Rte 3. Trenton.

Beal's Lobster Pier in Southwest Harbor, is one of the oldest pounds
in the area. Adjacent to the Coast Guard station, it’s not the
most the picturesque side of the harbor, but offers clams, lobster and
sandwiches.

Thurston's Lobster Pound in Bernard (across the water from Bass Harbor)
is charmingly atmospheric, the quintessential New England fishing village
setting.

Abel's Lobster Pound is situated adjacent to a marina, at the head
of spectacular Somes Sound, the only natural fjord in North America;
they serve outdoors at large picnic tables under age-old pines, or indoors
at the restaurant. Definitely not lobster in the rough, it's pricier
than other lobster restaurants in the area. Nevertheless, children can
run freely, as you sip an exotic mint/raspberry tea and watch a tangerine
sun setting over the water while picking away at a three pound lobster
(unless you’ve ordered the lazy lobster, already out of its shell).
They also offer Lobster Newberg, other traditional lobster variations
and maintain an extensive wine list.

Stewman’s Lobster Pounds are billed as “the only authentic
oceanfront lobster pounds in Bar Harbor.” They cater to the huge
flow of tourists pouring through the town during the summer, and are
located on Rt 3 as one heads into Bar Harbor, as well as downtown on
Main Street.

A gripping psychological thriller with characters that reach out and grab you. Sandman touches our primary emotions: jealousy, love, fear, hatred, and grief. The dialogue is authentic, and, along with the scene-painting narrative, youíll feel like youíre on the beach witnessing the unfolding action.

Deception Point

Dan Brown

Exiled author, Craig Mellow returns to Zimbabwe when he is given a spying mission for the World Bank. Accompanied by photographer, Sally-Anne Jay, he stumbles upon an ivory-poaching operation which masks the treacherous plot to sell the country he once fought for into slavery.

The Playgroup

Janey Fraser

With an opportunity to prove herself, Gemma can't wait to take over Puddleducks Playgroup. But the new head of the infant school, Joe Balls, soon tempers her enjoyment. Meanwhile, Nancy is in turmoil. Her only son has just started at the playgroup and her husband has taken a temporary posting to Vietnam. There never was much hope of conceiving her much-wanted second child so what is she to do now? A tumultuous term lies ahead for all.

Dead Men

Richard Pierce

Birdie Bowers, an infamously secretive painter, is a woman given a dead manís name by her obsessed parents. Her namesake was one of Scottís companions on his fated expedition to the Antarctic. Almost a hundred years after his death, she is determined to discover what really happened to him accompanied by Adam, a bored computer geek, who falls in love with her. But Scottís tent is now under 30 metres of ice.